Germany: Introduced Act to Improve Enforcement of the Law in Social Networks (Network Enforcement Act/NetzDG) including content moderation regulation

On 16 May 2017, the Act to Improve Enforcement of the Law in Social Networks (Network Enforcement Act/NetzDG) including content moderation regulation, was submitted to the German Parliament. The Act would require online platforms displaying user-generated content to implement a flagging mechanism to enable users to report unlawful content, check the reported content and assess whether it is unlawful and subject to removal or access restrictions. The online platforms would be required to remove or block access to content determined to be unlawful.